Virginia county hones new rainwater harvesting standard

Fairfax County, Va., recently grappled with permitting its first project that makes use of rainwater harvesting.

The county’s new sustainability requirements prompted the developer of a three-block project to propose inclusion of rainwater harvesting. But, the system was not covered in the county’s 2012 codes that laid the basis for the newest sustainability requirements.

A county code official researched the matter and discovered that the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) had just approved a new standard—CSA B805-18/ICC 805-2018 Rainwater Harvesting Systems Standard. It was designed to help code officials to develop guidelines that work with existing building codes.

An official with the International Codes Council believes that as the new standard becomes better known, a lot more rainwater harvesting projects will be undertaken.